Depressed Dialysis Patients More Likely To Be Hospitalized Or Die

Posted by Christina Crease

at September 17, 2008

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A UT Southwestern Medical Center researcher has discovered that the dialysis patients diagnosed with depression are twice expectedly admitted to the hospital or they die within a year as compared to those who are not getting depression. In a study, researchers analyzed 98 dialysis patients for around 14 months in which more than a quarter of dialysis patients got a psychiatric diagnosis of some depression type.

This is the first reported relation between severe clinical results in dialysis patients and depression created through a psychiatric interview based on the DSM-IV standards. More than 80 percent of the depressed patients died or were admitted to the hospital than 43 percent of non-depressed patients.

“Twenty percent of patients who begin dialysis will die at the end of the first year,” said Dr. Susan Hedayati, assistant professor of internal medicine and the lead author. “What we are unaware of is, if their depression is diagnosed, could it increase dialysis patients’ survival and revamp their live.”

Dr. Hedayati, a nephrologist at the Dallas Veterans Affairs Medical Center, said the symptoms of depression such as energy loss, bad appetite and irregular sleep- are mostly analyzed in patients with chronic disease, so it is imperative to have a diagnose of depression.

26 million people in America are going through chronic kidney disease, said the National Kidney Foundation. End-stage renal disease happens when the kidneys have unsuccessful to the edge where dialysis or a kidney transplants is required. Dialysis washes away the poison in the blood and control the blood pressure. Coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure and diabetes are called co-morbidities for those patients who are having end-stage renal disease, said Dr. Hedayati said.

Depression can be cured, so Dr. Hedayati wishes hospitalizations and deaths can be lower down with research. Other big trials including dialysis patients in which some that measured treatment of high cholesterol, using ACE-inhibitors or raising the dose of dialysis, have not displayed to create a necessary difference in life expectancy or hospitalization, Dr. Hedayati said.

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